todae's nail art is my own tribute to Michael Jacksonwhen mama called on friday morn to tell me tat he passed awayi still thot tat she was joking with me

its not tat i'm a MJ fansure i lk some of his songs& wld read abt e latest news & gossip abt him*sometimes getting really amused by it all*

but its tat e passing of an icon lk him is unexpected, shocking & a tragedy

based todae's nail art on one of MJ's songs: Black or Whiteblack & white are colours of mourningblack is a colour tat i associate with rock star cool& well... black & white is also another way i remember MJ (his dramatic skin colour chg)

a swatch of OPI A36 Happy Anniversary 1sttis is 2 coatsa very sheer colournt likely tat i will wear tis colour on its ownits more a polish to layer with

unfortunately e mani didnt last long tis time roundnt sure if its cos i didnt mix e eproxy glue wellbut e rhinestones started falling off e nxt day after i did e mani!& tis has never happened b4 until tis time

then i hv new loots to show as welltis set of OPIs came in e mail on wedS39 What's Dune?S38 Day at the PeachS37 Coral Reef

then tis set of TINS & nail accessories came in e mail today025 the Saturn006 the Amethyst070 the Starlets026 the Mars005 the Aquamarinea bottle of red glitter nail art lacquer (FOC)black rhinestone (FOC)purple metal beads (FOC)& a wheel of teardrop shaped rhinestones

tis restaurant is actually located in a restored courtyard housetraditional looking & very pretty!& on e day tat we went, there was a 20% discount promo gg on! =)

i fell in love with e tea tat we ordered!

its called e Jin Lian Hua teaif i were to do a literal translation, it means Golden Lotus tea*but dun tink its lotus flower in there lah*

e waitress told us tat its supposed to hv colling properties

well,its e prettiest tea tat i ever dranki took countless shots of e teakekeke.... even attempted an artistic shot of it

ok here's wat we ordered:

tis one here is ba wang jibasically its steamed chicken in their version of curry saucee least yummy & exciting of all e dishes for tis meal*we were saying tat we shld hv tried another chicken dish instead*

then we had chinese lettuceat least, tat's wat i tink is e english name of e vegi learnt all e veg names from my ma& they're all in mandarin lahso i aint very gd with matching veg to their english/western names =P

then brocoli *AHA! tis is one veg tat i know for sure!*with fish maw

gerry also ordered some steamed egg with foie grasi'm not a fan of liver of any sort, so skipped tisbut it looked really pretty!

couple of ruins were note-worthye.g. there was one of a mosque tat was built for e emperor's muslim concubine*& i dun tink e emperor converted to Islam*

then tis pic is one of e ruins of a grand fountain which once had sculptures of e 12 heads of e animals in e chinese zodiacapparently some were looted off by invading armiese chinese govt managed to recover some*gerry & i wondered if a certain sculpture involved in a furore over an unpaid auction mgt hv belonged here in ancient history*

honestly, i was disappointed with e old summer palacei mean, sure i knew it was a ruins garden b4 gg*since i read parts of e guidebooks*but i had high expectations after e new summer palace

but its lk some desolate ghost town lor!& nothing much exciting as wellaccording to some signage,there was supposed to b a peony festival display somewherewe walked & walkedBUT NO PEONIES!!i ended up pretty frustrated =(

according to lonely planet's guidebook (pg. 91),tis is beijing's most magnificent Buddhist temple& was "once the official residence of Count Yin Zhen who became an emperor in 1723 & traded up to e Forbidden City.his name was changed to Yongzheng..."

tis one is a pic of a sculpture depicting ji le shi jiebascially it refers to e place where one goes to in afterlife

there are 5 main hallsbut e finale came at e last hallwhich housed 1 of e biggest statues of e Maitreya Buddha (in Tibetan form) tat i've ever seen(unfortunately, photos were not allowed in some areas & so i'm not able to show u e full splendor of e temple)

there's a legend abt tis bell:apparently, when e emperor commissioned for tis bell to b builtall e bell-makers (is tat wat they're called??) came togbut after many attempts, none were able to build one to size & satisfactionthere was a deadline given by which, if e bell is still not done,e bell-makers wld all b in really serious trouble

unfortunately, on e last day of e given deadlinee bell was still not built & they were down to e last resources avail

jus as e imperial entourage was about to come to inspect e bell,e chief bell-maker's daughter distracted them& threw herself into the furnancechief bell-maker attempted to catch his daughterbut was only left with her embroidered shoe

despite his grief,he knew tat his daughter's sacrifice was nt in vaine bell was finally made& all e bell-makers were safe

apparently, somewhere in Beijing, in some hutong,there's a temple tat is dedicated to e bell-maker's daughter as well!!

another thg tat struck me when at Bell Towere ancient Chinese ppl actually managed to built all their significant structures in a straight line

here's a bit of feng shui triviaif u ever get ur hands on a map of beijing,u will realise that e Bell Tower, Drum Tower, Forbidden City & a couple of other structures tat are all in a straight line& e locals call this e dragon's line; there's a dragon head, e body & e tail

actually, i wasnt very much impressed with e bell towertink if we had known tat e drum tower was closedthen we prob wld hv skipped tis spot totally

anyway e more exciting bits wld b coming up in part 2*& its not even abt e sites of attraction!!*

*sigh*hv TINS coming in hopefully by tis weekgot an order of Misa, Orly & OPI pending with another frentesting another batch of OPIs & Orlys from a new US supplier& i'm waiting for e Nubar Going Green collection to reach yet another new US supplier

Sunday, June 21, 2009

but as mentioned in previous postmy camera died cos i forgot to charge e batt

pics of day 4 part 2 are with Gerry dearso i'll continue with day 5 1st& will come back to day 4 part 2 when Gerry passes me e pics

day 5,

on e way to e Great Wall of Chinaaka wan li chang chen

earlier we had already booked a car thru Gerry's fren to get us to e Great Wallbut we never expected to get driven in a limo!!

& we paid e price tat we hv paid if we hv booked a cab!!

wahahaha....

arrival at e foot of mu tian yu

e Great Wall is so huge tat its been divided into various sectionsso when in beijing, if u hear ba da ling, si ma tai, jing shan ling, mu tian yu, these are jus names of e various sections of e Great Wall

ba da ling is prob e most commercialised among all e various sections& prob one of e most visited by tour grpsaccording to Frommer's 2008 guidebook (pg 133), there's even a KFC & a starbucks!!

well, Gerry & I hv an aversion to great hordes of ppl& we rather hv a feel of e more au natural version of e Great Wallif nt for my damn knee we prob mgt hv opted for si ma taiwhich according to e guidebooks, is one of e most rugged & unrestored sections

instead we headed for mu tian yuwhich is totally breath-taking

from e foot, we had to take tis cable car up

at 1st we were still tinking tat we wld b climbing up e hilluntil we were told by e ticket operator tat it wld more than an hr...

& according to Fodor's 2007 beijing guidebook (pg. 215)apparently, former US President Bill Clinton ascended tis way as well in his 1998 visit!!

& ahem, to b honest,i was kinda scared when i took e cable carit was so open - a bench & a metal rail in frontthen i was wearing my tatamiso i was terrified tat they'll drop below & b lost forever in e hill!!

heehee... i took tis shot of my much beloved tatamijus in case i had to mourn its demise =P

kekeke.... coming down was a lot more funwe took tis german-built toboggan ridebasically its tis open car thg tat runs along a metal slidewell, e cars dun really allow u to go too fast*i'm a speed demon*but it was still fununfortunately, there was no way i cld take a pic of e toboggan ride

mu tian yu is absolutely breath-takingi took tons & tons of photos

well... i'll jus let e photos do e talking here =)

*man... i wld luv to hv such views to wake up to every morning...*

then they had tis salute to Chairman Mao Ze Dong hacked into e peak of one of those hills...

Mu Tian Yu is jus slightly further from beijing as compared to ba da ling,& much nearer compared to e other sections